Just for grins, I decided to do a quick sketch of the Serengeti area. The proposed site is exactly 4 acres (not the 10 claimed by the zoo). There's more than enough room to house rhino breeding for both black and white as well as two predator species, hippos, and giraffe/hoofstock.

This is a quick 5-minute sketch that would make things much better.

I've included 3 separate rhino only yards all roughly 1/4 acre each. Two predator yards (Lion and Wild Dog) each roughly 1/4 acre again. A large hippo exhibit 1/4 acre, and a large mixed species exhibit 1.25 acres (giraffe/white rhino/hoofstock/birds). There are 2 barns (hoofstock and predator), and right at an acre of visitor experience (including giraffe feeding. I kept the natural treeline as a backdrop for the mixed species savanna.

There is plenty of room to add smaller exhibits for new species (meerkat, bat-eared fox, croc, aviary, etc.).

I leave intact the current cheetah exhibit as it would adjoin the new predator exhibits (totally 3 exhibits) and the bongo/waterbuck exhibit. These two areas need no renovation.

Again, this is only 5 minutes, but makes infinitely more sense than what was published.

Attached Files:

The benefit of this is that the lions/cheetahs/wild dogs are taken out of what is essentially now an Asian area (Asian elephants, Indian rhinos, tigers, striped hyenas, lowland anoa), and it frees up those exhibits (currently the African Diorama) for more geographically appropriate species.

The diagram that was linked to is literally just a bubble with a handful of little bubbles inside of it, I wouldn't even call it a master plan! I would hope that what is being built has been taken through the design process and has developed into something with less ambiguity and more thought. The idea to move the African species into this new savanna exhibit and take over their old exhibits with an Asian zoogeographic developement certainly makes a lot of sense.

The diagram that was linked to is literally just a bubble with a handful of little bubbles inside of it, I wouldn't even call it a master plan! I would hope that what is being built has been taken through the design process and has developed into something with less ambiguity and more thought. The idea to move the African species into this new savanna exhibit and take over their old exhibits with an Asian zoogeographic developement certainly makes a lot of sense.

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Drew, they haven't even done Concept yet. They don't even have funding.

As long as they give the elephants a bigger habitat, but yes, I'm a little bit befuddled as to why they are naming it the Serengeti expansion with their Asian elephants.

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If you look at the page with the map, you'll see first that the area labeled "Serengeti" is located just above the "Elephant". They are two different areas.
You'll also see that the legend in the top left of the map identifies the zone outlined in yellow as "New Exhibitry." That zone is "Serengetti.

If you look at the page with the map, you'll see first that the area labeled "Serengeti" is located just above the "Elephant". They are two different areas.
You'll also see that the legend in the top left of the map identifies the zone outlined in yellow as "New Exhibitry." That zone is "Serengetti.